How justice system fails the underprivileged

　The number of traffic accident deaths in Seoul fell 19.1 percent last year from a year earlier, data showed.　A total of 246 people died in traffic accidents in Seoul in 2019, down from 304 tallied a year earlier, with a daily tally of 0.67, according to the data compiled by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. (Yonhap)

The Justice Ministry said Tuesday that 8,093 foreign nationals who had been staying in Korea illegally voluntarily left in the period of one month, thanks to new incentives that exempt them from penalties if they leave by June 30 and allow them to reenter the country on short-term visas.The daily average number of those leaving Korea more than doubled after the incentives were introduced on Dec. 11, the ministry said.From March 1, those found to have overstayed their visas will be slapped with f

The Unification Ministry and local governments are taking steps to provide emergency support to destitute defectors from North Korea.Surveys conducted last year showed that 553 -- or 1.7 percent -- of the 31,000 defectors from the North residing in South Korea were suspected to be in “crisis” and in urgent need of help, the ministry said Tuesday.The inquiries were made in a bid to locate those in the blind spot of the welfare system, after a woman from North Korea and her 6-year-old

Nearly half of Korean women who married foreigners in 2018 chose Chinese or American grooms

South Korea's quarantine authorities said Thursday they are ratcheting up efforts to contain a new type of Chinese coronavirus amid reports that it could possibly spread among humans, after the country reported the first confirmed case of the SARS-like disease early this week.  Multiple media reports showed that two Chinese confirmed to be infected with the new strain of the pneumonia-like illness currently spreading in China and across other parts of Asia have never been to the centra

Police are investigating the death of a 62-year-old North Korean defector who was found dead last week at a cemetery in Daegu.The Daegu Suseong Police Station said Monday that the defector, from the North’s Ryanggang Province, was found by a rescue dog at around 10:20 a.m. Friday at the cemetery in Suseong, a southeastern district in the city. According to the police, the man, who came to South Korea in 2008, had been living by himself on government subsidies since 2010, when he could no l

SEJONG -- Fifty years ago, South Koreans aged 14 and under made up 42.5 percent of the population in the wake of the country’s 1955-1963 baby boom.Korea ranked second in a retrospective comparison of the 36 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which looked back at youth populations relative to total country populations in 1970. While Mexico topped the list for that year, with 46.8 percent of its population no older than 14, the majority of OECD members post

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Monday ordered health authorities to respond quickly to prevent the spread of a new coronavirus from China, after the first case was confirmed in South Korea. On Monday, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that a Chinese woman had tested positive for the coronavirus. On receiving the report, Chung ordered the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the KCDC to work with other concerned organizations to prevent the virus from spreading,

A compact community equipped with public housing, parks, child care and commercial facilities will be built above a highway in northern Seoul as part of efforts to meet housing needs for the young and the newly wed, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Monday. According to a blueprint revealed by the municipality and the Seoul Housing and Communities Corps., an artificial plot of land will be built above a 500-meter section of the Bukbu Expressway to create a public housing complex for 990 hou

South Korea’s opposition leader accidentally sent beef jerky to the Jogye Order of Buddhism as a Lunar New Year’s gift, bewildering the country’s largest Buddhist group, which practices vegetarianism.Gift sets containing beef were delivered to several of the group’s senior officials earlier last week under the name of Liberty Korea Party Chairman Hwang Kyo-ahn. The main opposition party learned about the mistake Friday and retrieved the gift sets the same day. It sai

JEJU -- Prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty for a 37-year-old woman accused of brutally killing her former husband and stepson last year.In the final hearing at the Jeju District Court, prosecutors demanded the death penalty for Koh Yu-jeong, who allegedly murdered her former husband and 5-year-old stepson in two separate incidents."The defendant Koh Yu-jeong murdered a father in front of a son and a son in front of her father. ... Both cases derive from her contempt towards hu

South Korea on Monday reported the first confirmed case of China coronavirus amid concerns that a pneumonia-like illness is set to spread across China and Asia.According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a Chinese woman suffered fever, respiratory problems and other symptoms after arriving at Incheon International Airport and tested positive for the virus.She traveled to the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei Province last week. The patient has been given treatment at a local

SEOUL/ULSAN -- Ulsan Mayor Song Cheol-ho was questioned Monday over an ongoing probe into allegations that some presidential officials conspired to help him win the mayoral seat in a 2018 election.Song, 71, was being questioned at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office this morning for the first time regarding the election-meddling allegations, according to political and legal sources with knowledge of the matter.The mayor, who successfully ran as a ruling Democratic Party candidate for t

Yongin, a city of 1 million located about 40 kilometers south of Seoul, aims to take the livelihood of its citizens to the next level, with improvements in living environments, job opportunities and municipal services. “This year will mark the first year for our city to raise the level of all sectors to the next level,” said Mayor Baek Kun-ki. Under the slogan “Upgrading Yongin,” Baek laid out five policy pillars for this year: invigorating the city economy and its compet